Thomas Burton “Tom” Rainey, Jr. was born in Wauchula, Hardee County, Florida on 4 June 1936. After he graduated from Hardee County High School in 1954, he served in the U.S. Navy as a Hospital Corpsman attached to the Marine Corps, until 1959. He graduated from the University of Florida at Gainesville, Summa cum Laude, with a BA in History, in 1962. He earned a Ph.D. in History and Russian Studies from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana in 1966. 

From 1966 to 2018, he taught Russian and Eurasian Studies at the University of Arkansas, Duke University, State University of New York at Buffalo, and The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. He has published many articles and two monographs on Russian and Eurasian topics as well as articles on Washington State history, primarily of the territorial period. He is presently Professor Emeritus of The Evergreen State College.

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Ms. Carter was born on a U.S. Navy base in the Philippine Island in 1956.  At age 7, she moved with her parents to Luzern, Switzerland where she attended German-speaking schools for primary and middle school.  In 1971, the family returned to Los Angeles, California where she completed high school then attended UC Santa Barbara’s German program for two years.  In 1983, she graduated with a BA in political economy and a master’s degree in public administration from the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. Nina retired after 30 years working for Washington State on environmental and land use policy and law.

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Tom and his wife Nina live with their three Kats Karamazov (Dima, Sam and Alyosha) in Olympia, Washington. They enjoy traveling, reading, writing and working on their forested property in South Puget Sound.